View full sizeThe Associated Press/fileBob Casey met with President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss health care reform.

Casey said the Obama Administration made the wrong decision and urged it change course.

Casey said religiously affiliated institutions like hospitals and universities should not be forced to provide health insurance policies that cover procedures or provide services that are contrary to their religious beliefs.

“At the same time there ought to be a way to reach a common ground,” he said. “I don’t think it’s impossible to strike a balance and reach accommodation between the respect for religious liberty and making sure folks employed by a university or college have access to contraception and services like that. I think there’s a way to do it.”

Casey, a steadfast anti-abortion lawmaker who voted in favor of health care reform, said he believes the ruling centers around a different issue than access to contraception.

“I’ve supported strongly access to family planning and birth control not just in words but in my vote,” Casey said. On the other hand, he said, the religious tenets of faith-based hospitals and universities must be respected.

Catholic Democrats joining Casey include: Rep. Daniel Lipinski, of Illinois, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Obama also took a hit from his former DNC chairman, Tim Kaine, a Virginia Senate hopeful.

The debate has simmered for weeks ever since the Obama Administration, in an administrative mandate in January, added the clause to the health care reform law.

That simmering debate has exploded into a full-blown firestorm that threatens to blur partisan lines and send the law to the revision desk.

The health care mandate requires health insurance plans to cover contraceptives and sterilization, which the Catholic Church fundamentally prohibits. Religious employers who employ and serve individuals of the same religious beliefs are exempt. The Catholic Church, which tried to secure conscience exemptions, says the ruling violates constitutional religious freedoms. Catholic hospitals, universities, nursing homes and Catholic Charities argue they cannot comply with the religious exemption since they serve religiously diverse communities.

“It negatively impacts the Catholic Church in the United States and strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith,” The Rev. Joseph P. McFadden, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, said in a press release. “Our federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people – the Catholic population – and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.”

McFadden said the administration’s sole concession was to give institutions one year to comply.

“We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law,” he said.

For Republicans, the outrage among Catholic Democrats have added fuel to their months-long struggle to repeal the law. Many, eyeing the upcoming election cycle, have seized the opportunity to stir up opposition to the Obama Administration.

This week, in an move that stunned Washington insiders, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a Catholic, took to the floor to lambast the health care mandate, vowing legislative action if the White House did not retract the ruling.

Boehner called the mandate an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country.

“I agree with him,” said Rep. Thomas Marino, a freshman GOP congressman from Pennsylvania’s 10th District. “The government has no business in this whatsover dictating to the Catholic Church or any entity thereof such as Catholic-run hospitals. Don’t tell me Catholic hospitals do not fall under the purview of First Amendment rights.”

Marino vows to back Boehner in any effort to repeal the ruling and said he urges Obama to focus on important issues such as the national debt and unemployment.

“I’m asking him to concentrate on those areas,” he said. “We Catholics, we’re pretty good at knowing what we believe in and what our religion is.”

Marino’s is one of many GOP voices attacking the mandate.

Freshman Pennsylvania Congressman Lou Barletta, whose 11th Congressional district includes swaths of Dauphin and Cumberland counties, is calling for a repeal.

Barletta, a Catholic, said his opposition to the mandate is based not so much on religious but constitutional principles.

“This goes far beyond one’s believes of whether or not an individual can or should use contraceptives,” he said. “This is the federal government trampling on American’s First Amendment right of freedom of religion.”

Barletta said religious freedom didn’t just mean the ability to worship, but the right to keep others from imposing their beliefs on you. “This is the first time in American history that the federal government has tried to interfere with one’s religious freedoms,” he said. “A non-Catholic would have to ask ‘Whose next?’”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has co-sponsored a law that would provide a more comprehensive religious exemption in the rule.

“I am extremely concerned that this regulation would force religious employers to violate their religious beliefs in order to keep their doors open, Toomey said. Many Pennsylvania hospitals, charities and schools have expressed concerns about the effect this new regulation would have on their ability to operate and provide important community services.”

The uproar comes at a fortuitous moment — depending on the perspective — given the upcoming election campaign.

Riding a wave of a recharged campaign, GOP nominee hopeful Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania Senator, this week told Fox News the mandate was “a direct assault on the First Amendment, not only a direct assault on freedom of religion, by forcing people specifically to do things that are against their religious teachings.” Santorum promised to repeal the ruling if elected.

To be sure, the more compelling voices of opposition are those from the liberal corner. In addition to Casey, Manchin and Lapinski, a few other Democrats have also defected, including Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).

Casey, who is up for re-election in the wave of a Republican sweep in the last cycle, stands to be a crucial ally for Obama in Pennsylvania, historically a swing state.

“We are talking about something that is seven months away. No one knows for sure the salience of this kind of issue but we do know you don’t want to create tension within your own political base and at the same time you don’t want to energize the opposition,” said Terry Madonna, a political analyst and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College.

“That’s apparently what this policy does. How long lasting it is no one can know for sure. We also don’t know whether this administration will cave should pressure get any greater. There’s still that possibility. This administration has caved in on other issues, so there’s still that possibility that it will walk back on it.”

Madonna speculates that the Obama Administration did not thoroughly think out the ramifications of the ruling.

“The administration is flummoxed,” he said. “It’s clearly befuddled about what to do. I think they’ve walked in to a serious problem politically. One has to wonder why it had to be given the nature of the presidential election at this point.”

Casey said the administration in the last couple of days has indicated its willingness to work towards a compromise.

“I don’t know what that will be,” he said.

As far as any political implications for Obama as a result of his defection, Casey said he would leave that up to political analysts.

“I think it’s the right approach to take in terms of public policy,” he said of the mandate. “Sometimes here in Washington, people see an all-or-nothing zero-sum game where folks don’t spend enough time looking for common ground. This is one instance where the usual approach is not the right approach. I think the right approach is to reach appropriate accommodation. I think we can do that.”

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